


Standing in the Streetlight

by trixyunhhhh



Category: RuPaul's Drag Race RPF
Genre: Coming of Age, F/F, Fluff, Lesbian AU, Romance, Secret Relationship
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-29
Updated: 2018-01-29
Packaged: 2019-03-10 22:08:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,245
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13510752
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/trixyunhhhh/pseuds/trixyunhhhh
Summary: Trixie Mattel was stuck in a rut. She was almost a year out of high school and back in the same job she worked when she was sixteen, trying her best to keep her family afloat while trying to figure out what she wanted from life. And then a beautiful girl showed up in the diner she worked in, and she found herself with a whole new distraction to deal with.





	Standing in the Streetlight

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone! I have been lurking in this fandom since Season 9 and all of the excitement for the new All Stars Season had me too excited about all of these character not to try at contributing something of my own! I'm kind of rusty so any feedback will gain you my eternal love. Help a writer out!

“Laurie! Laurie, I’m sorry, ohmygod, I’m here! Shit, fuck, I’m here, ok, I’m here!” 

Trixie was breathless as she dived down behind the counter in the diner, tossing her messenger bag to the floor and grabbing a spare apron, panting all the while. 

“Take a breath, kiddo, relax,” Laurie said, holding out a notepad and a pen for Trixie once she’d tied her apron. 

“I swear, Laurie, this isn’t going to keep happening. The store was a nightmare and then some kid started tossing cans and-”

“It’s fine, Trixie. Just go take care of the table in the corner, ok? They’ve been here more than five minutes and no one’s taken their drink orders. Do you remember everything?”

“Of course I do, I told you, you didn’t need to spend the entire shift on Tuesday walking me through everything again.” Trixie said.

“Ok, hon’. Yell if you need reminding, anyway,” Laurie said. She always spoke to Trixie in that same fond voice that made Trixie as frustrated as if she were her own mother. She felt like Laurie still saw her as the sixteen-year-old she’d given a job the very first summer they’d moved to Boston. But now Trixie was almost nineteen, all grown up- even if she’d had to ask Laurie if she could pick up her old job for a while, just until she could figure out how best to juggle everything that was going on. 

Trixie was a hard worker by nature, and it was a good thing that she was. She’d been working as soon as she could find someone to pay her: first helping to clean a salon owned by one of her mother’s friends for a couple bucks an hour under the table, then picking up more official jobs once she was old enough to collect a real paycheck. Things like that had all worked mainly by word of mouth back in her hometown, so when they’d had to move to Boston she’d been dreading trying to find something half-decent again and had almost cried with relief when Laurie, come to visit while they were still moving their things in from the moving van, had asked Trixie and Dan if they wanted a summer job. Dan had taken a few hours here and there where he could, but Trixie had spent the whole summer hunkered down at the diner, half to make as much money as she could and half to stay away from the house. The hustle and bustle of the diner had become something of a sanctuary for her, the constant chaos of the customers preferable to the unfamiliar home in an unfamiliar neighborhood. 

But as much as Trixie had come to love the diner over the years, she hadn’t imagined she’d be working back here almost a year after graduation. 

It wasn’t until Trixie had reached the corner table Laurie had directed her to that she realized she recognized some of its occupants. Violet Chachki, Valentina and Pearl had been in Trixie’s grade in high school. She hadn’t expected to see any of them at the diner, since as far as she knew they had all gone to schools further away for college, and she did her best to hide her unhappiness at the impromptu reunion. 

“Hi ladies. What can I get for you?” she asked, plastering a smile on her face. 

“Look, girls. I didn’t know all the servers were wannabe makeup artists here,” Valentina said, setting down her plastic menu and giving Trixie a huge fake smile. 

“Knock it off, Tina. We’re not in one of your telenovelas now, no need to go all  _ escandalo _ on us,” Violet said. Valentina’s smile dropped and she pushed her menu towards Trixie with long, sharp nails. 

“A diet soda, please.”

“Sure thing,” Trixie said tightly. 

“Are you going to write it down?” Valentina asked. 

“I’m sure I can remember,” Trixie said. She was grateful she’d had enough experience was difficult customers to make sure her perky server voice didn’t slip at Valentina’s insistence on being a bitch.

“If you’re sure,” Valentina said, eyes narrowed. 

“I want cheese fries,” Pearl cut in before Trixie had to reply. Trixie nodded, taking her menu from her and returning the smile Pearl gave her. 

“I’ll share yours,” Violet decided, “and we’ll have two diet cokes.” Pearl’s dismay was clear on her face, but she didn’t try to argue. “Katya? What do you want?” Violet prompted.

The fourth girl in the booth looked up from the menu, which she’d been scrutinising through the entire discussion. Trixie didn’t recognize her, and she was sure she’d remember her if she’d seen her before, with her sharp features and startlingly light eyes that lay somewhere between blue and gray and green. 

“What’s the best thing you serve here?” she asked, setting the menu down and fixing Trixie with an intense stare. 

“On the whole menu?” Trixie asked. 

“Yeah. The very best thing you can recommend,” she said, nodding. 

“Well,” Trixie said, humming thoughtfully, “I can only really vouch for the vegetarian options, but Laurie has a great menu here.” She picked up the menu and scanned over the sections. “How do you feel about breakfast food after noon?” 

“I’m open to it,” the girl, Katya, replied. She was smiling at Trixie now with a mouth full of dazzlingly white teeth. She was stunningly beautiful, and her demeanor was intriguing to Trixie. If she’d been in less awkward company, she’d make more of an effort to talk to her. 

“The pancakes are really good,” she told her. Katya nodded and held out her menu for Trixie to take. Her nails were painted the same red as her lips, though all of them were chipped and varied in length. 

“Good call,” she said. 

“Pancakes? At a diner? How original,” Valentina scoffed. Beside her Katya rolled her eyes, sharing a look with Trixie as if she were her co-conspirator in the face of Valentina’s rudeness instead of one of the girls sitting with her.

“Hey, Laurie?” Trixie said when she got back behind the counter, tucking the menus into the storage spot for them by the soda machines. 

“Yeah, sugar?”

“Can you watch me fill this with diet? Something tells me this girl is going to try to say I gave her the wrong drink,” Trixie explained. Laurie looked over her shoulder at the table. 

“Which one?”

“The one who looks like a total bitch.”

Laurie barked with laughter. “Trixie, honey, you’re going to need to be a little more specific if we’re looking at the same table.”

“The one on the end, with all the dark hair.  _ Valentina _ ,” Trixie said, pronouncing it in the same affected way Valentina always did when talking about herself. She glanced over at the table. The girls were all looking at her, Violet saying something in hushed tones, but when she looked over she stopped talking and all of the girls except Katya looked away from her. Katya gave her another big smile. Trixie returned it with a smaller one of her own, trying to focus on her instead of the sureness she felt that the girls had been whispering about her to Katya. 

When Trixie had taken a tray of sodas over to the girls- waiting defiantly for Valentina to try to challenge her about whether her drink was really diet- she went to take orders for a couple who had just come in. She was settling into the pattern of the job when she felt a tap on her shoulder where she was grabbing menus from the other side of the counter. 

“Is everything ok?” she asked, doing her best to mask her surprise when she turned around to find Katya standing in front of her. 

“I forgot to order a drink,” Katya explained.

“Oh! Do you want a soda? I should have checked,” Trixie apologized. 

“I should have asked! Do you have Red Bull? Diet?” Katya asked. Now that she was up close Trixie could see the slight unevenness to her lipstick, faded dark eyeliner around the corner of her eyes that looked like it came from an earlier look instead of a deliberate attempt at a subtle smokey eye look. 

“Sure. I can bring it over to your table,” Trixie offered. 

“Actually, I can grab it on my way back from the bathroom. Save you dealing with  _ her _ again,” Katya offered, glancing over at Valentina. 

“I thought she was your friend?” Trixie asked.

“I’ve never met her before. I take a couple classes with Pearl and she invited me here to meet some of her high school friends. Violet’s cool but that other chick is kind of a bitch,” Katya said. 

“You’re telling me,” Trixie said, unable to hold back a smile.

“I’m Katya, by the way,” Katya offered.

“I know, I heard. I’m Trixie.”

“Trixie,” Katya repeated, then nodded, “that’s pretty.”

“It is,” Trixie agreed. She liked her name a lot, and it sounded even nicer coming from Katya’s lips. “So, are you new to town? Did you move here for school?” she asked.

“For community college?” Katya replied with a raised eyebrow. “No, I’m from here.” When Trixie tipped her head a little, trying to figure out why she’d never seen her before, she elaborated, “I went to Montrose. I guess that’s why we’ve never crossed paths before.”

“Oh.” Montrose was a fancy Prep school in town: Trixie had seen the girls from there before, giggling together in their ugly uniforms. 

“I get it, everyone hates the Catholic School girls,” Katya said. She was grinning as she said it, though, big white teeth on display as she propped her elbows on the counter, hip tilted a little in her tight jeans. 

“Only when they come to slum it with everyone from the public schools. What brought you here- community outreach programme? A warped desperation to see how the other half live? Or are you just determined to convert us all to living by the words of our lord and savior?” Trixie asked. 

“Moses 69: try not to be a total bitch to every new person you meet,” Katya replied, quick as a whip. Trixie had to keep her mouth firmly shut to hold back a laugh. 

“Moses definitely isn’t a book in the Bible.”

“I wouldn’t know, I’ve never read it.” Katya straightened herself up again, tossing her hair over her shoulder. One of her dangly earrings tangled in her curls, and Trixie realized they were designed to look like she had cigarettes dangling from her ears. Or, actually, maybe they really  _ were _ cigarettes, and Trixie tried to lean in closer to figure it out, but before she could Katya was moving towards the restrooms. “I’m going to hold you to it if my good is no good,” She told Trixie.

“Bitch, you can try. We’ve never had anyone say their food was bad here before,” Trixie said. Katya grinned at her again. 

“I have a talent for being the exception,” she promised Trixie. 

“Why doesn’t that surprise me?” Trixie replied. Katya beamed at her over her shoulder as she walked away. 

When Katya had gone into the bathroom, Trixie turned around to check the window for any orders ready to go out. She almost walked straight into Laurie, standing right behind her. 

“Flirting on the job?” she teased. 

“I would never. I’m a consummate professional, you know that,” Trixie sniffed, pushing past her to stop Laurie spotting her guilty expression. Trixie loved flirting, especially when it was with a girl as pretty as Katya, and Laurie knew it. She liked the buzz it left her with, and she couldn’t help herself from stealing looks over at Katya once she’d taken the food over to their table.

When the girls were finished eating, Trixie was almost reluctant to take them their bill and see Katya leave. 

“How was the food? I take it you found nothing to complain about?” she asked Katya, feeling a little bold for ignoring the other girls as they tried to split the bill out between the four of them. 

“You were right -- the pancakes were great. I’ll have to sample more of the food here, see if I can test your theory about the whole menu being good,” Katya said, grinning at her over Violet’s head. 

“It’s a sound theory,” Trixie replied. Katya’s grin didn’t droop even when she realized the other girls were waiting for her to chip in her part of the bill. Trixie’s eyes widened when she tossed a twenty down without batting an eyelid. “I’ll get your change,” she said, but Katya shook her head. 

“Keep it,” she said, following Violet when she slid out of their booth. “I’ll see you around, Trixie.”

When Trixie set the money down on the counter, Laurie let out a low whistle from where she was leaning into the corner. “You’ve still got your charm, girly,” she said, sounding deeply impressed. “That pretty little lady took a real liking to you.”

“She’s also a rich kid from Montrose,” Trixie pointed out. 

“Who gave you an almost one hundred percent tip,” Laurie countered. 

“I might not ever see her again,” Trixie replied. She hoped she was wrong. 

-

“Hi!” Trixie said into the phone later that night. She felt like she hadn’t stopped all day, slipping out of the house with the sunrise for her shift at the grocery store before rushing straight to the diner to work until closing, only stopping in at the house to eat the box of food Laurie had pressed into her hands as she left to chase her bus. Now she was walking the perimeter of the local park, and finally returning Dan’s calls from the last few days. 

“Trixie! Hey,” her brother said. He sounded upbeat, and as she always did when they first got on the phone after a while Trixie missed him fiercely. 

“Sorry I missed your calls. Laurie’s been really good, she’s giving me a full schedule around my time at the store, but I haven’t had a lot of time to check my phone.”

“Girl, don’t worry about it,” Dan soothed. “I’m glad I managed to catch you now, though, we’re going on in twenty minutes.”

“Oh, shit! Are you even allowed to be talking to me right now?” Trixie asked. 

“Calm down, it’s fine. My skates are on, I’m warmed up, there’s nothing else to do but wait.”

“Are you in your dumb costume?” Trixie couldn’t help but ask. 

“It’s not dumb. I’m a prince!” Dan laughed. “Hey,” he said a moment later, “did my paycheck go through?”

“Yeah,” Trixie told him, “thank you for sending the extra hundred.”

“No problem. Mom told me to stop sending so much, but I’m assuming…?”

“Please don’t stop sending this much,” Trixie said, nodding. “They’re still fighting us on that water bill, and I want to make sure it doesn’t get shut off again. Besides, do you know how expensive dog food is?” she asked, glancing down beside her. 

“She’s worth it!” Dan insisted. 

“You take her with you next time you come home then!” Trixie laughed, rolling her eyes. 

“You’d never let me take Dolly and we both know it,” Dan said. 

“Doesn’t mean she isn’t expensive to keep.”

“I wanted you two to have a protector around the house while I’m gone,” Dan explained for the twentieth time. 

“And an old arthritic Labrador was the right choice for a protector?” Trixie shot back. Dolly looked at her from where she’d been sniffing at the grass and Trixie gave her a guilty pat to the head. 

“It’s good for you to have company there,” Dan said. “How’s Mom, anyway?”

Trixie pulled a face into the darkness. “Fine, I think? I haven’t seen her since yesterday. You know how it gets when we get out of sync.”

“I know. I think I might be able to get a raise soon, you know, since I’ve been working here almost two years.”

“We’ll be fine,” Trixie promised. She wished there could be a little less pressure on her brother to send so much of his paycheck home. She also wished there could be a little less pressure on  _ her _ to work so much, too, but there wasn’t much point in wishing.

“I know. I just wish you two could relax a little, that’s all. Maybe you could look at a different beauty school-”

“That doesn’t matter,” Trixie interrupted quickly. 

“I still don’t understand why they kicked you out,” Dan carried on, and Trixie groaned. 

“Why does everyone always want to talk about this? They kicked me out, end of story,” she said. Dan apparently heard the bite to her voice and thankfully didn’t push any further. 

“I’m glad you could go back to the diner. Laurie cares about you a lot, it makes me feel better to know there’s someone looking out for you,” he said instead. 

“I feel like I’m a kid again, working back there,” Trixie admitted. Dan laughed. 

“You are a kid!”

“I’m almost nineteen!” Trixie whined. 

“Whatever,” Dan chuckled. On the other end of the phone she heard someone call  _ hey, has anyone seen Dan? Milk! Come on, dude, we’re going on in three minutes! _

“I still can’t believe you let them call you that,” Trixie teased. 

“It’s a nickname. I’m one of the guys,” Dan said. “ok, I gotta go. Give Mom my love, ok?”

“Sure. If you fall I want videos!” Trixie shouted down the line. Dan had already ended the call before she finished speaking, but she was smiling as she put her phone in her pocket. “Come on, girl. Let’s go home,” she said to Dolly. She liked to hassle Dan about surprising Trixie and their mom with her, but she did appreciate having someone to come home to when she finished her busy shifts, even if took Dolly five minutes to walk from her bed to to the door to greet her. 

As Trixie reached the edge of the park, she spotted a silhouette on an adjacent path through the grass. It was Katya from the diner, jogging along with her headphones in. Trixie started to wave on instinct, but then spotted how hard Katya’s expression was. Her mouth was set in a firm line, hands balled tight into fists where her arms moved by her sides. If she weren’t dressed in work-out gear, Trixie might have thought she was running away from something, or someone.

Trixie couldn’t help but watch Katya as she ran along the path. When she was almost level with Trixie she stopped, breathing hard, and for a second Trixie thought she’d spotted her and felt embarrassed for watching her. But instead Katya pulled open the velcro strap around her arm and grabbed her phone. She stared at the screen for just a moment or two, then seemed to grit her teeth as she replaced the phone in its holder. When she started running again, she was going even faster. 

-

When Trixie got home, she only stopped to shower before tumbling into bed. Her alarm would go off before sunrise again tomorrow, but at least this time she’d be going to the diner instead of to one of her hellish morning shifts at the grocery store. 

Before she fell asleep, Trixie remembered how smiley and vibrant Katya had seemed in the diner. She’d seemed like a whole different person by the time Trixie saw her at the park- and she was totally intrigued.

**Author's Note:**

> Please leave me a comment to let me know what you think! What did you like, what would you like to see in future parts? Thanks!


End file.
